Travel.

I just found a CF card from almost a year ago. A lot of the photos on it are from a Hop Farm tour I took in early August last year. It was so much fun, but I never did manage to write a post about it. Now I’m in southwest Washington State and vaguely contemplating the post again. Why? Because far away in Washington state there’s a hop museum. I live in Chicago, so even a drive of two or more hours feels practically next door. Of course, one just opened recently in Wisconsin, so you’d think I could just go there. But, really, I don’t see why I can’t do BOTH1. Then write you guys a post. In late July.

It’s 85F here today.… Continue reading →

Why, Yes. That is an Apple Sandwich.

A week ago, I made apple sandwiches for dinner.

I mean, I made apple and caramelized onion sandwiches for dinner.

I mean, I made sandwiches containing apples, caramelized onions, goat cheese, and smoked tomato jam for dinner.

Man, those sound really different, don’t they?

While making the sandwiches, all I could focus on was finding some way to save dinner. See, my original plan sounded dreamy to me. And simple. And oh, how I need simple after work these days. And the plan was chicken sandwiches.

Unfortunately, I got home, started getting things ready for sandwiches, and discovered that the leftover roast chicken looked bad. And I was bummed. And freaked out, because I had to figure some substitution fast. Because while chicken sandwiches with caramelized onion, goat cheese, and tomato jam sounded good, without the chicken it somehow no longer sounded good.… Continue reading →

Meeting Bill’s Family in Seattle, WA.

After Salt Lake City, Bill and I hit the road again. Well, the contrails or something. We flew, is what I mean. Flew from Salt Lake City to Seattle, WA. While there, we saw a ton of friends. We made new friends. I got to meet some of Bill’s extended family for the first time. That was super awesome because Bill’s aunt makes an amazing dinner. You all? You’re disappointed you didn’t get to eat with us.

This is actually something Bill’s Uncle Russ made. The morning of our arrival, he and Bill’s cousin Jack went down to some place in Seattle where you buy fishes and bought two big salmon. When they got them home, they discovered one was full of eggs – an amazing and lucky treat!… Continue reading →

Sometimes you get to do what you want and save money in the process

Sometimes, there’s a reason and a way to manage everything. I think it’s rare, but yesterday I got lucky and got to manage all of it. Including figuring out a way to modify the tomato sauce recipe I love so much that last year I froze a bunch for the winter.

Reading that post, I see I owe you guys a post on how it froze. I’ll get right on that. But this post is about managing to make tomato sauce for my freezer while focusing on the more important things I really had to get done. Though I suppose mentioning that I made more gives you guys some indication of how it froze, eh?

Anyway, I did manage to make tomato sauce yesterday. I did not go clothing shopping.… Continue reading →

What a day. Already.

It’s just about 10:30 am as I sit down to type this. Though I have taken to scheduling posts, this isn’t one of them. Nope. This is a real time post all about what’s going down in my house.

We have company arriving tomorrow evening. We can’t wait to see our good friends. We can’t wait to feed them with all the goodies we got from our CSA. Eggplant. Kale. Lettuce. Tomatoes. Peppers, both sweet and hot.

Oh, did I say tomatoes? I did? Yup. I might have a few tomatoes. A few. I mean, 25 lbs counts as a few, right?

Actually, I purchased 25 lbs extra from the farm so I could can them and turn them into pasta sauce. So, I had a hot and messy day planned for today.… Continue reading →